"Jimmy Kimmel Live" returned to ABC Monday night after a week's hiatus for the July Fourth holiday and unfortunately, he filmed the show prior to President Donald Trump announcing his Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, a former aide to President George W. Bush and investigator of President Bill Clinton.
So Kimmel got creative, and pretended the announcement had already happened during the taping of his show Monday, by using a filler nominee that he thought would likely work for any person Trump would tap.
"Tonight was a bigly night for our celebrity president," Kimmel said in his opening monologue. "Tonight from the White House, the primetime Supreme Court nominee special hosted by you know who."
"It was on all the major networks," he continued. "It even interrupted 'The Bachelorette' here at ABC, which is a no-no. They had the first hour of 'The Bachelorette'’ then the Supreme Court announcement, and then the Final Rose Special hosted by Chris Harrison."
Kimmel added that Trump loves announcements. "Trump, as he has been known to do, announced his announcement multiple times on Twitter," he said, reading some of the president's promotional tweets for the Supreme Court announcement just from the last few days. He wrote Saturday: "Big decision will soon be made on our next Justice of the Supreme Court!"
Then Sunday: "Looking forward to announcing my final decision on the United States Supreme Court Justice at 9:00pmE tomorrow night at the @WhiteHouse. An exceptional person will be chosen!"
And then Monday: "I have long heard that the most important decision a U.S. President can make is the selection of a Supreme Court Justice – Will be announced tonight at 9:00 P.M."
"'I have long heard' for Donald Trump means they said it this morning on 'Fox & Friends,'" Kimmel quipped. "I don’t know why he has to be so dramatic about this kind of thing. No one needs more suspense. Just give us the name of your nominee so we can move on with our terrifying lives, OK?"
There has been much speculation over who Trump would nominate for the highest court since Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his resignation. This is Trump's second nomination since he took office and many on the left worried that he would pick an ultra-conservative justice, giving the court a clear right wing majority and the power to overturn groundbreaking cases like Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges.
"There’s a lot of speculation about who Trump would pick but very few, in fact none, of the experts predicted this," Kimmel said, and the show turned to a doctored clip of Trump announcing that the "Harry Potter" villain Lord Voldemort is his nominee.
The folks at "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" tried make it seem as real as possible, by using the C-SPAN logo and chyrons at the bottom. Then, Voldermort entered the White House via a cloud of smoke and appeared as a man dressed in all black, with his face painted a light green. He and Trump shook hands. "So was that a surprise?" Trump says.
Watch the full clip above.
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